Angela arrives at the party at Columbia, there she meets up with her friends and with a dark foe. Soon all kinds of dark spirits start stirring and people are being killed left and right.

Part 9: The Last Hope

The next day when she woke up she didn’t retort to her clock like a dolt. Today was the day she would figure out a plan to stop the monstrous demon that had been stocking her. She placed her feet on the floor and got dressed. Then she walked over to her sink to brush her teeth. Deep in her mind she kept thinking of how she would banish that beast. Her reflection in the mirror was different. Her skin looked very pale and her eyes looked like they were blood shot.

“This will end soon my dear,” she said softly to herself. The side effect from the wish was much more damaging than she had ever excepted. When she regained consciousness from last nights attack there was more than just thrashing pain. There was this new pain that made her feel like her skin was crawling. Angela shrugged. She knew that the pain would only be with her for a short time.

After getting made up in the bathroom she walked into her kitchen. Although, she hesitated on taking anything from her refrigerator or cabinets. Her stomach felt very odd, she clutched it lightly then took a few steps away from her kitchen counter awkwardly. Eating didn’t sound satisfying to her at all.

“Maybe just a beignet for today,” she said looking over at her cabinets beneath her kitchen counter. She opened the cabinets, and took a small one out. She sat over at her small table and took a bite. Thoughts about the Kawazin clouded her mind. She took another small bite from her pastry and started to think harder. “I know he’s powerful but there is something I have that he doesn’t have,” with that thought she smiled brightly and looked over at her television. On top of it there was a glass jar and inside of it on a small heap of white cotton was a piece of the odd gem he was imprisoned in. “I know somehow he was banished inside of that gem. But what I can’t put my finger on is who or what banished him. Was it a human like me, or another spirit, or maybe even god himself,” she spoke softly. The phone gave a sudden ring.

“Hello?” she answered.

“Hi Angela,” spoke Derek over the phone. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine.”

“Great. Tonight the Natural History Museum is having a dinner party but only the students at Columbia are invited.”

“Who set this up?” she asked sounding a little disturbed. “What time is it at?”

“I know it starts around 8:00 P.M. but I don’t know who exactly set this thing up. I heard it was to celebrate the year Columbia started to sponsor archeology.

“Okay.”

“So I’ll see you around that time then. See ya,” then the phone clicked and there was silence again. She looked over at her window. She could see the sun had already brightened up New York. Along with the huge city sky scrappers that always looked nice to her.

“What a glossy day,” she thought. “What a wonderful day for victory.”

Later that day she went down to the YMCA near her apartment. She wanted to work out a little bit. She had brilliantly figured out her plane for stopping the demon and she knew the rest of the day would go untouched by his evil powers. This enabled her to relax for the rest of the day.

The streets were flowing with people. She wore a heavy jacket with jeans. It was cold out and it was getting close to November. On the side walks of the city she saw people running and walking stressfully and calmly in all directions. New York was constantly flowing with traffic on the streets and side walks. Angela had adapted to this kind of society. She had been living in this area for eight years. Her parents though, moved back up north to the countryside. However Angela had always enjoyed the city. Ever since she was a little girl she always wanted to live in some large city.

When she got to the gym she immediately got dressed. She walked into the women’s changing room and then got undressed. Surpassingly inside the room there were almost no other people. The locker room was painted almost completely white with blue stripes going across the walls. When she was slipping on her pants she heard a noise that disturbed her terribly. She slowly sat up from the bench and looked around the wall of lockers. Her dark eyes turned in all directions looking for something? Then the noise struck again. It sounded like metal bars rambling across a marble floor.

“That doesn’t sound right! What the hell is going on!” she growled to herself.

“Only you can answer that one.”

“Stay away from me,” she said breathing heavy with one knee falling to the flour. She knew exactly how it was. The demon could once again whisper his terrifying words into her mind. He could always get to her somehow. No matter what she did. Angela closed her eyes and clutched her scalp like a victim of a mind shattering migraine. She started to edge across the wall towards the bathroom still in a crouching position and grabbing her temples.

“I wished for you to vanish. Why won’t you just leave me alone. Why?” she asked painfully as she walked into the bathroom.

“I will get you no matter what it calls for. I do declare that you are slowly weakening. Every time you make a wish I will become stronger and I will gain more power. Even if it was from a wish from a bum, a scientist or even a drug dealer I still profit. You humans are what I feed on in this game and I will not stop until I have won.”

Angela stood up straight and looked in one of the bathroom mirrors. Her eyes seamed to grow darker as her pupils narrowed with rage. Teeth clenched harder than a metal clamp. The Kawazin had threatened her life enough, she was going to look at herself and find the power to stop this supernatural beast.

“I will banish you,” she said almost in a crying voice.

“With what ha! Are you going to wish another pathetic wish again and hope
I disappear from your insignificant life.”

“Nevertheless. You can leave my life or I will crush you. It is your choice my friend.”

“Really we will have to see about that. If you think you can handle my true power lets see what you can really take,” his voice vanished from her mind. With the temptation to just run out of the room she turned slowly and looked away from the docile mirror. She felt her heart, it wasn’t beating like a machine gun. Her stomach didn’t feel like it was bursting and her face wasn’t even red like a ripe tomato. However, when she took a step it felt like she almost fell on one limb. She could hardly walk.

“Maybe this is just the beginning of his true power,” she said to herself. As she walked around the corner she saw another women. She looked African American, but she looked very pale and held a worried expression on her face.

“Are you alright miss?” she asked gently.

“I’m fine. I just have a bad heel at the end of the day that’s all,” she said walking over to her clothe. The women turned and then walked away. “At least they’re are a few beings on this planet that haven’t been demoralized,” she spoke to herself.

After getting some shoes and socks on she went out to the gym. When she came out to the weight lifting room she hardly saw anybody. There was one man standing by a desk at one end of the room. Over at one of the machines was a muscular white man with a tan that went with his T-shirt and shorts. She sat over at one of the arm machines. She grabbed the lever and started to push up with force. Her face did not change expression, her face was a still as a still, placid lake. After working at the machine for a few heavy moments the radio came on with delightful music. Angela liked it even though it was rock and roll.

She got up from the machine and walked over to one of the bench press machines. Gently, Angela laid down under the bar and clutched it with her small hands.

“Need any help there lady?” asked the strong looking man. Angela shook her head. She could pick up the weight but had some minor difficulties balancing it. She brought the weight down and then up slowly. Working out in the gym made it feel like time elapsed smoothly. Lifting weights also sometimes made her feel better and took a lot off her busy mind. As she lifted the weight she started to catch onto the music they were playing. She recognized the song, it was called Jump. However it wasn’t the original song it was a remix by a music artist she was not familiar with. Within a couple of seconds the song faded out and then the news came on.

“This is Peter Jeremia with the news bulletin. Approximately a thirty minutes ago about twenty amazing car crashes have occurred in Time Square.” Angela almost dropped the weight at the thought of those words. She rested the weight on the floor and then listened to the news bulletin very closely.

“This must be one of the Kawazin’s wiles,” she said.

“This just in. The Yamooshi Industries building along with a couple other office buildings in Manhattan went out and lost complete power. All of those buildings also caught on fire. We don’t have any vital evidence on who did this to these buildings,” he spoke. When he finished his sentence Angela got up from the bench press and went walking out of the room angrily.

When she came into the changing room she made sure there was nobody there. Her heart couldn’t take anymore of this, she was on the verge of bursting into a fireball. She had been knocked around far to much by this demon. With rage and pain she looked up at the ceiling with her eyes full of fire. That was the finale straw she couldn’t take the feeling, the anger, the thoughts of vengeance, the sorrow, and most of all the agony.

“Stop it! Stop it! Damn You! Leave the rest of the world out of this! Its all just between you and me!” she hollered into straight up at the ceiling. Then the air rested in her thought like glass. Perhaps she had been fighting to hard. She placed her hands on her face. However she could see a person walking towards her through the prison of fingers. She sat down on the floor and crossed her legs like a Japanese monk.

“Are you okay?” asked the small Indian man. He was wearing a pair of gray shorts with a green T-shirt. When he spoke his voice carried great symphony. Angela nodded slightly like a little girl. Then the man walked away. What was he doing in the women’s changing room? He most likely heard her screaming and thought something was going on.

Angela wasn’t going to let anymore of these incidents bother her, she knew what she had to do. And tonight she would have her revenge. Even though she had always thought that vengeance in her book was a terrible thing. The Kawazin though, a supernatural beast who never showed any mercy for anything was kind of like an exception. Deep in her soul she could feel his evil even when he wasn’t in her placid presence. With a soft sigh she got up from where she sat and walked over to get her clothing.

After getting dressed she went back to her apartment. When she entered the small room she walked over to where she kept the piece of the artifact. Slowly she approached it. Her eyes were set right on it like a jaguar watching it’s prey. Cautiously she removed the piece from the glass case. It made her feel nervous carrying the piece in her pocket. She had always thought that even just a little piece of the gem had something supernatural evil about it.

Inside her room she took out a pair of black satin pants. She looked at them almost asking herself if they would be appropriate to wear. It came to her that they would be great so she trust tossed them on her bed. Next she took out her red silk shirt and set it down on her bed too. Before she would get dressed she would take a nice warm heaven like shower. Angela stepped into her bathroom set her dirty clothing on the sink counter and then stepped inside the tub and turned on the water. Millions of water droplets came pouring out of the shower head onto her face. To her it felt like standing under her personal waterfall. Pleasantly she rubbed her skin with a bar of Dove soap. It felt so refreshing and comforting for her and her body. She closed her dark eyes as she rubbed more soap around her face and under her eyelids. Then she started to scrub along the lower part of her legs and thin thighs. After washing up she placed the soap back on the shelf on the side of her bath tub. Then she took down the small bottle of clear shampoo. She gave the bottle a squeeze and then she started to scrub the small slimy blob in her dark hair. The shampoo suds instantly started to merge with her hair and soon the top of her head felt squishy and sudsy. She scrubbed and mooshed around her hair and squeezed the white suds out.

After about fifteen minutes of heavenly scrubbing and washing up she was out and getting dressed. She slipped her soft pants on over her white panties. Then she buttoned up her red shirt. She placed on a couple of regular shoes and then walked into her bathroom one last time before leaving. Inside her bathroom she had her own make up kit. There she kept her favorite lipstick and eye shadow. She slowly curled the eyelash curler in her right and left eyelashes. Then she highlighted her lips with some red-pink lipstick. Then came her eye shadow that she used to color, and darken around her eyelids.

When she was finished giving herself a make over she grabbed her pocket book and walked out of her apartment and down to her car. The garage was very quiet and dark. Angela didn’t see or hear anyone. She clicked the laser lock key on her key chain and then jumped in her small vehicle.

“Everything is going to be okay,” she thought as she pulled out and drove out of the garage.

Outside on the city street it was like driving through a light show. All the lights on the buildings, street lamps, and cars lit the city up like a gigantic Christmas tree. Angela had adapted to the bright New York night. She had always admired the sight of lit up cities at night. Driving though one was also exciting for her. However as she drove down the black road she noticed there were very few cars out, also there weren’t many people out either. To her that all seemed very peculiar since no matter what hour you out at the city sidewalks and streets were always flowing with busy citizens.

She had memorized the drive from her place to the Museum. Ever since she had taken the job as being an archeologist she knew she would have to memorize the routes to all the museums and places by heart she would have to commute to.

Within bout a half hour she was at the museum. She parked her car in the dark part of the parking lot. There were few spaces when she first tried to parked. Soon as she drove down the jammed parking lot she noticed that there were only going to be good spaces in the dark end of the parking lot. Her bug fit just in place when she parked it. From where she was parked she could see the tops of heads moving in a single file line. After she locked her car she walked over to the museum entrance.

The entrance to the museum was awesome looking. There were flowers all over the stoop with a long silly ribbon tied at the top of the entrance. She walked up the stoop, but before she could even get a small inch near the entrance the front guard stepped in front of her. He was a looming man in a dark blazer and tie with slacks and black shoes.. He had dark French hair and skin. He was quite handsome but she knew she could never get him on a heavenly date.

“What’s you name?” he asked in a inviting voice.

“Angela Swords,” she stated. The man looked at his check list. Then he nodded at her. Angela then continued into the building while eyeing the guard as she went in. Following Angela was another person who was associated with Columbia.

“State your name?” asked the guard.

“Peter Johnson,” he remarked. The guard took a quick look at his sheet then he nodded crossing his arms.

Angela walked through the decorated halls to were the party was being held. It didn’t take her long to get there. The party was taking place inside the long hall they used for celebrations, parties and even meetings. She stepped into the room and she was instantly amazed at what she saw. There were many more people than she had anticipated. After glancing all around the room she started to move into the crowd of people. The women’s dresses and other clothing glimmered in the bright over head lights. Angela almost felt slightly jealous because she didn’t have a nicer outfit. In away she didn’t think she could have even been able to compete in looks with the other women.

She walked over to one of the long beverage table. They had a wide variety of wines and other drinks. Suddenly she was tapped on the shoulder. She turned around and saw a man dressed nicely all in white with a black glossy bow tie.

“Would you like some white wine?” he asked formally.

“Sure,” she replied then taking a tall slender glass from his metal silver color tray. She took a drink of it and then let the taste rest in her taste buds. The wine tasted vary good. One of the big advantages of working as an archeologist sponsored by Columbia was getting to attend the very fine parties.

Music was also in the air. They were playing some kind of old classy music in the background. Angela wasn’t very found of that kind of music but at a nice party it was most defiantly exceptional.

She started to look around the room for some people she knew unfortunately she didn’t see anyone she knew personally.

“Angela?” a voice said hesitantly. The voice seemed familiar. She turned around and saw Miss Bludgeon.

For a moment she did not recognize her. Then a sudden memory flashed in her mind. She was the one who got Angela interested in the field of archeology.

“Miss Bludgeon, you look very pretty” she commented

She did. She was wearing a gold sheath, a perfect complement to her dark hair, which was tied up in a bun. A simple necklace was hung around her neck. She looked very good for a fifty year old woman.

“Thank you,” she hesitated then placed a glove hand on Angela’s right shoulder. “You are also beautiful,” she said, each word carried a peculiar emphasis.

Angela felt herself blush lightly. In her heart she felt like she was something again. She felt something like a aristocratic Greek goddess.

“Hey Angela!” piped up a voice from the loud crowd. Angela didn’t know where the voice called from. Suddenly she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around and faced the person. The fellow was Derek, he was wearing a black pair of slacks with a navy blue blazer and a green tie.

“You look great,” Angela said.

“Back at ya. So what do you think of the party?”

“Its okay. Not really my type of party though. Have you seen Jon Sprous?” she asked taking a sip from her drink.

“No way. He is at the hospital. I don’t think he will be joining us until he gets better or until they finally figure out what is wrong with him.”

When he had finished his sentence Angela felt her heart and thought almost squeeze. She knew what was wrong with Jon and damn right she would help him. Even though he had always been very smug and didn’t seem to have much interest with her or what ever she did.

“Are you okay?” Derek asked. He had noticed for the past few minutes she had been walking around not saying anything to him who was right at her side. Derek saw something very peculiar in her eyes.

“I’m fine,” she replied softly. “I just-I just, I don’t know I’m confused I need another drink to gather my thoughts,” she said shaking her head slightly placing a right hand on the right side of her face.

“Well I’m going to go mingle with the rest of the crowd. You should go get your drink. Do you know where the beverage tables are?”

“Yes I do, I will see you later,” she said then she walked through the crowd of people over to the beverage table. There she grabbed another tall glass full of transparent colored wine. She placed the old glass on the table. The night was no longer young it was middle age and she was already tired. She started to drift away from the beverage table and started to walk around by herself drinking her wine diligently. She wanted a place where she could sit down and feel comfy and just drink the night away.

Most of the people in the party house seemed like they were very busy talking to each other. Gossip was starting to fill the air and Angela didn’t really want to take part in it. Another bad thing about the party was that she hardly recognized anyone. There were so many gossiping people all crowding around each other, it seemed impossible to just get one word passed through to anyone.

“Excuse me are you Angela Swords?” spoke a voice from behind her. She turned slowly to face who it was. The person was someone she didn’t recognize. He was gray bearded and he was wearing a gray sport coat and tie with a pair of gray slacks. He also had a pair of glasses over his face.

“Yes I am Angela. Who are you?”

“I’m glad you asked. My name is Peter Dick I work at Columbia University. I help fund and sponsor archeology at the place.”

“You do. Wow this is cool. I have never even heard of you before. Its a pleasure to meet you,” she said shaking his hand.

“Weren’t you one of the people who went on the trip to Babylon?”

“Yes I was as a matter of fact.”

“How was it there? Did you like the culture the food, the sites?”

“Yes I did actually. But we did run into some trouble out there,” she said looking down at the floor.

“What kind of trouble?” he asked sounding a little concerned.

“We got attacked by a caravan of thieves. Luckily none of the other archeologists were killed. It has stayed silent ever since the day that it happened on.”

“Really. Well that sounded scary, but also exciting. I will talk to you later he said then he walked away.

Angela watched him walk every step away from her. She felt very odd after talking to him. In her mind and heart she could feel something very strange, very peculiar about him. She rolled her eyes and walked away.

She walked over to a statue they had on display at the party floor. It was a huge ice sculpture of Atlas holding the Earth in his arms. She grabbed a new glass of wine. It was a green opaque color. Angela thought it was a very strange color type wine but to her it smelled delightful. It also tasted very good, the taste was like a blend of lime and grape. Without warning somebody from behind her tapped her left shoulder. She turned around and saw her friend Derek again.

“Angela there is someone here at this party you may find quite interesting,” he said calmly with a placid smile.

“Who are you talking about,” she asked sounding a little confused.

“I met I man named Peter Richardson. He apparently works with the archeologists of Columbia.”

“Wait a minute I think I have already met him.”

“You did?”

“Ya isn’t he the chubby man dressed in gray?” she asked.

“I think so. He was very nice and he actually told me that his last name was Dick.”

“Really? when did you talk to him?”

“About five minutes or so. Why?” he asked looking at her with questioning eyes.

“Well. I know this sounds pretty crazy but I was just talking to him about five minutes ago too. I’m not sure how he could be at to damn places at once,” she said. Then it nailed her, she knew what was so weird about all this. “Why here. Why now?!” she said to herself in a frightened sorrowful voice.

“There is something bothering you tonight, isn’t there,” Derek said pointing his right index finger at her. Angela was off in a new world. She was frantically looking around the whole room like a terror-stricken parent looking for their run away child. She didn’t see him anywhere.

Relief swept through her like a summer’s breeze through the gassy fields. She didn’t see him anywhere.

“Oh? Don’t even think that your safe!” whispered an evil voice that tunneled through her mind. Her heart jumped and she almost did too.

“What’s wrong Angela?” Derek asked sharply. Angela of course ignored him. Her eyes started to swell with pain as she looked around panicking like an injured animal. Suddenly she saw him. He was wearing his long velvet red robe with gold silk curled shoes. He smiled at her with an evil posture. His eyes were a deep dark ruby red color.

Angela almost felt the urge to scream. She was really going to go nuclear. She looked away from the breath taking monster and she saw another horrific sight. She saw a thin tall man in a black blazer and tie talking to the Kawazin! The demon was holding a tall thin glass of wine in his left hand. With his other hand he was making motions and he looked like he was talking seriously. Angela anticipated that only her eyes could see the beast. Or could the other people in the room see him too.

She completely turned away from the monster and covered her eyes. Derek felt a little uneasy. He could see something was bothering the hell out of Angela. However, Derek couldn’t place his finger on it. Who was in the room that made her act so strange. He took a few steps away from her, he didn’t know what she was going to do.

Angela opened her eyes and looked around a tiny bit. Suddenly she saw the Kawazin again this time he had a long shiny blade pointing at the back of a medium size woman in a blue dress.

“What the hell is going on here,” she mumbled under her breath. “Leave this world alone please,” she said almost crying. The agony and the rage was starting to ball up inside of her again. She knew she had to be tough and not let go. In her mind she knew she had to keep herself under control. Although, this beast was not invited to this party and she did not know what to do. Her hands were on her temples and her head was starting to sway from side to side. The agony was getting more painful by the second, she tried to keep calm but she couldn’t and that was when she lost it.

“Stop it! Stop it! Damn you! Stop! Leave me alone!” she screamed like a banshee. She felt like she was a little girl trapped inside a dark cave. Everyone in the room was starring at her like a flock of hawks watching one peculiar mouse. She slowly stood back up to full height again. The Kawazin was standing on one of the beverage tables. He grinned evily at her.

“This party seems a bit lackadaisical. Allow me to spice it up,” he spoke darkly. After those very words all hell broke loose.

Suddenly all the wine glasses exploded sending shrapnel like glass pieces everywhere. The glass bits sliced and diced through the people that were closest to the drinks. Over in one of the corners a tall suit of armor lifted it’s head up. Without hesitation it jumped down from it’s stand. It looked over at one of the students at the party. She was wearing a sparkling green dress. She froze spontaneously in fear. The metal titan impaled it’s long sword through her stomach right beneath her ribs. Blood started to gush from her mouth. Her eyes lost control and they half shut as her arms swung lifelessly. The titan ripped it’s sword out of her and it turned on the man that was standing next to it. With a powerful kick with it’s left leg it knocked the man away from him like a speeding bullet. He crashed on a table a couple yards away.

Angela was frozen in her tracks. Derek took off like a chicken when he saw the suit of armor jump down from it’s stand. People were screaming and running around like frightened cattle.

The large ice sculpture jumped down from the table that they had set him on. With supernatural strength he crashed the ice bolder into the head of a waiter. With it’s powerful arms of ice it rolled the massive ice bolder through the crowed of panicking people. The bolder knocked and tripped everybody who got in its path. Suddenly Angela saw the ice ball coming towards her. With adrenaline speed she jumped out of the way. She crashed and rolled across the floor away from the ice ball, as for the gigantic ice ball it rolled right through one of the walls and shattered it into toothpicks.

Hordes of people were rushing for the doors. Without warning the ice bolder came rolling through the doors crashing through a whole group of people. Another group of people came charging at another door but before they could get there the brown door locked on them. They all started to pile up on the door and pushed and shoved to try and get free. Suddenly a chunk of the ceiling fell out and crushed the panicking people below it like a boot stomping on ants.

Angela was still on the ground. She could now focus on what she was seeing clearly. In front of her she could see a storm of high heeled shoes and shiny dress shoes. Angela crossed her arms in front of her face hoping to reduce the damage that she was about to receive. Suddenly the floor below the storm of people collapsed with them all falling to their doom. Slowly like a terrified child she slowly uncovered her eyes and she saw the Kawazin walking towards her placidly with his hands folded. She almost shrieked. Then she jumped to her feet and darted away from him. She could see way in the back there was a door that said exit on it with big green letters. She ran towards the door like a hungry lion charging at a zebra. When she made contact with the door she flew right through it and skidded across the marble floor. She was safe!